Team USA's speed skating contingent has had an awful trip to Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Winter Olympics so far. Shani Davis, the gold medal favorite in the men's 1,000-meter race on Wednesday, was supposed to become the first speed skater to win that event in three straight Olympics. Instead, he finished eighth. A day later, Heather Richardson and Brittany Bowe — the world's top-ranked female skaters at their distance — failed to medal in the women's 1,000-meter race.

The rash of unexpected failure prompted a search for answers among Team USA athletes, fans and the media. On Wednesday, a Wall Street Journal article seemed to nail the problem. The Americans, apparently, blamed their poor performance on a design flaw in the high-tech uniforms that team sponsor Under Armour produced for the games.

The entire mess has been a major black eye for Under Armour — but on Friday, it may have been resolved for good.

The Under Armour uniforms are to blame because, sources said, vents on the backs of the skintight suits meant to let body heat escape actually backfired. Instead of just letting heat out, allegedly, the vents let air in, to create a slight drag effect.

That effect could be a critical handicap in a sport where just one-hundredth of a second can make the difference between the eternal glory of an Olympic medal and the lifelong anonymity of a fourth-place finisher.

The suits, designed with help from Lockheed Martin, were hyped before the games as if they were legal performance enhancers. But, the Journal reported, "One skater said team members felt they were fighting the suit to maintain correct form." Under Armour was in the awkward position of either defending its product or publicly bickering with a major marketing partner — one wearing the American flag, no less — on one of the world's biggest stages.

Early Friday, the company released this statement from SVP of Innovation Kevin Haley:

Under Armour will continue to partner with USA Speed Skating throughout the Sochi competition to help ensure these incredible athletes are best positioned to skate with confidence and capture a spot on the podium. We are committed to providing Team USA with the best possible gear, and Mach 39 is the most scientifically advanced and rigorously tested suit ever featured in Olympic competition. While a multitude of factors ultimately determine on-ice success, many skaters have posted personal-best sea-level heat times, split times or race times this week, and we’re rooting for that to translate into medals over these next couple of days.

Shani Davis of the U.S. skates in the prototype of the official US Speedskating suit during a training session at the Adler Arena Skating Center at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 14, 2014, in Sochi, Russia.

Image: Matt Dunham/Associated Press

A few hours later, speed skating team members requested to wear their old uniforms — an Under Armour suit that came before the flap-filled models — for the rest of the Olympics.

But that created a whole new mess. According to another subsequent Journal report, the speed skating team is actually split between athletes who favor the new suits and athletes who want to go back to the old ones.

International Olympic Committee Rules, however, state that all members of a given team must wear the same exact uniforms, meaning American skaters can't just wear whichever suit they prefer unless some sort of official exemption is made.

At time of this writing, there had been no final resolution to the speed skating suits' troubled saga. An unconfirmed ESPN report said the team ultimately agreed to scrap the new duds for the old ones.

What is undeniable is that the American team is winless in six races. Not one of its members has finished higher than seventh so far. The men's 1,500-meter race — where Davis can redeem himself — is Saturday, with three more races to follow in the ensuing days.

No matter what happens, someone's likely to come out looking bad. If the U.S. keeps the new suits and continues losing, Under Armour will be dragged through more mud. If the U.S. changes suits and keeps losing, they'll have no one else to blame.

The only ideal outcome would be if the Americans keep the new Under Armour suits and somehow turn their performance around. But that seems unlikely. On Valentine's day of all days, the long-term relationship between Under Armour and US Speedskating seems in jeopardy.

Faces of Failure

Team USA waits for their silver medals after losing in overtime to Canada in the women's hockey final.

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